I am looking for any info on the McMasters who lived on the Mull of Kintyre, but by 1760 some of them left for Northern Ireland. I believe there may be gravestones with info on the MCMasters on them but I dont know where to look. Anybody help? Thx Kathy

kathy9 wrote:Got on the Kintyre site, spent ages browsing it, its got SO MUCH information and lovely photos too. Got so distracted I didnt get round to researching the McMasters yet, gonna do that tonight.

Btw any present McMasters living in the area?

Pleased you got here Kathy..., welcome aboard !

Did you get all your Machrihanish info ? Many on here will be able to help you with that, I'm sure !

Thoroughly enjoying the info and photos, Iain, am completely romanticised by the thought of James McMaster taking his coracle to Ireland in 1760, with 7 sons and 2 daughters, from Kintyre. This info has come via via via Australia from Henry McMaster, its amazing how helpful people are in genealogy, and how MANY McMasters there are out there. I think they populated quite a lot of the world and still left room for many left in Ireland too!!

kathy9 wrote:Gosh this is some wonderful search page from Ralston. Isnt it wonderful to have people who will share so much.

I don’t know if you’ve already noticed, but for as long as you don’t exaggerate, they’ll send you photos of the headstones for free. This is an unimportant aspect for those who live in the area, but for me and many of us who live abroad, it’s an ideal source of information.

Apart from the occasional e-mail, the last time I spoke with my brother and sister in Somerset was about 15 years ago. About that time my mother died..., I was able to see her a few weeks before but was unable to attend the funeral, so it was the remainder of the family who did the formalities and I took it for granted that she’d be buried in the region. Her father, my grandfather Malcolm Black died just after the war following the sinking of his boat in the Thames Estuary and when I found his headstone at Kilkerran, Ralstone sent me the photo and to my delight, I also found the inscription of my mother. The family had sent her remains back to Campbeltown.

Writing this short story has reminded me of something which I now intend to keep for eternity so-to-speak. It was my Grandmother Mary Martin McCuaig Rankin MacArthur…, wife of Malcolm and daughter of Robert McFarlane McArthur b1860 who had a great influence in my upbringing. (Longrow) With me about eight years old, we’d walk to Kilkerran and she’d always have a bunch of flowers. At the time, I hadn’t a clue as to who was buried there, she never said..., but each time we went she’d often point out a headstone on the way, not far from the family’s grave. “Never eat chewing gum” she’d always say, and once asked me to read the message on the stone.

It disturbs me slightly that because of population increase, nearly all governments around the world are planning to un-earth graves 100 years after the last burial. Seems such a shame that in this day and age we have “intelligent” people preplanning a deliberate loss of heritage. In our local graveyard they’ve posted small notices on such graves and they’ll all be uprooted next year.

Ralstone certainly has a magnificent site, I been browsing it today and have totally gone off the unstraight and not narrow path of researching the McMasters. He even sent me a list of McMaster graves, so far I cannot really see any matches.

I am so glad you got to see your family's gravestone from Mr Ralstone's site. It does mean such a lot when you are abroad and unable to attend funerals, I just lost my father and stepmother within 6 mths since August this year and I know how difficult it is. They are in Australia though and it was just too expensive for me to go.

So its really great when people take the time and effort to create a meeting place like this, like Ralstone and the people who have created and monitor this site.

Thanks for all the compliments. Makes it all worthwhile. (Sorry I missed them earlier)Actually the cemetery memorial stone images come from Muriel Adam, in Edinburgh. She and her late husband, James, visited all the cemeteries and recorded the information.They have allowed me to list them on the Internet.http://www.ralstongenealogy.com/personquery4.php

My Ralston ancestors left Southend in 1840 & 1850 and went to Northern Illinois Scot community of Argyle to become prosperous farmers. To learn about one of them take a look at-http://www.ralstongenealogy.com/ral016.htm